Ex-Behrend student convicted in sex case

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A former Penn State Behrend student told jurors she had gone to sleep alone in a friend's bedroom during a college drinking party when she woke to find a fellow student sexually assaulting her.

The man, John E. Hall II, told the panel in testimony that he thought the contact was consensual until the woman suddenly began crying and told him to stop.

"I was dumbfounded," he said.

An Erie County jury sorted through their testimony and testimony from others at the Pine Avenue party the morning of Sept. 30, 2012, and medical evidence before ruling that the woman was the victim of an assault, not a willing participant.

The panel convicted Hall, 26, of one felony count of sexual assault and one misdemeanor count of indecent assault. The trial began Monday in President Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr.'s courtroom. Sentencing is set for Jan. 7. Hall will be evaluated to determine if he qualifies as a sexually violent predator under Megan's Law.

Hall was charged with getting into the bed where the woman was sleeping and having sexual contact with her without her consent.

The woman maintained she woke to find Hall on top of her, having sex with her, asked him who he was, and pushed him away from her.

She then told him to leave the house in the 4100 block of Pine Avenue. After he left, she was taken to a hospital, where, a doctor testified, the woman was in too much pain to complete a physical examination.

Hall's lawyer, Stephen Colafella, said alcohol caused the incident.

"There were two intoxicated young people engaged in an act that one of them regretted or realized went too far," he said.

He argued that details in the woman's story had changed over time and that the testimony of others at the home could not be relied upon because they were too intoxicated.

He asked jurors to remember that much was on the line for Hall, an engineering major with a "nice family."

"The Commonwealth is telling you he's a rapist," he said. "It is not true."

Assistant District Attorney Erin Connelly said the woman, not Hall, was the victim. Hall, she noted, did not wake up to find someone on top of him with a body part inside him.

She said the woman did the responsible thing by going upstairs to go to sleep when she got tired, instead of driving home while intoxicated. Hall, testimony indicated, arrived at the house intoxicated with a partially consumed bottle of cherry vodka that he continued to drink once he arrived.

Hall had been offered a spot to sleep in a beanbag chair on the first floor. He said he went upstairs to use the bathroom and entered the room where the woman was sleeping because the door was cracked open. He said he did not realize the woman was sleeping initially but got in bed with her even after he realized she was there because there was enough room. He said the woman, an acquaintance, rolled over and with no discussion initiated sexual contact with him until she suddenly started weeping and told him to stop.